Willie Mullins has gone tantalisingly close to winning one of the world’s greatest races and most gruelling staying tests – the G1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) – and is back for Tuesday’s (7 November) AU$ 7.75 million (approx. HK$39.49 million) race for what he says is unfinished business.

After having a crack at his first Melbourne Cup 20 years ago when Holy Orders finished 17th to eventual three-time Cup winner, Makybe Diva, Mullins returned 10 years later with Simenon who finished fourth to Fiorente.

His fascination with what he described as “the biggest international race we could win” continued when Max Dynamite finished an unlucky second by half-a-length to 100/1 shot Prince Of Penzance in 2015, when Michelle Payne became the first woman to ride a Cup winner.

Not deterred by the enormity of winning the Melbourne Cup, which was first run in 1861, Mullins returned again in 2017 with Max Dynamite who ran third, while stablemate Thomas Hobson finished sixth.

Fast forward to 2023 and Mullins has returned with two French-bred runners, Vauban and Absurde, who are both last start winners but haven’t had any lead-up races in Australia.

Vauban has been the much-touted favourite for several weeks and it’s no surprise the elite stayer will give Mullins his best opportunity of taking the famed Melbourne Cup back to Carlow, Ireland.

And with both horses expected to go forward in the race, they drew perfectly at Saturday’s barrier drew with Vauban in gate three and Absurde in eight which has pleased Mullins.

“We have got a nice draw, everything has gone right, the quarantine has gone right, the draw has gone right,” Mullins said,

“We just need to break now and get into a position but I’ll leave that to the jockeys, they know the track better than I do, they know the opposition better than I do.

“We have done our job, now it’s fingers crossed.

“I think he’s (Vauban) as good as Max Dynamite and maybe better, we’ll find that out on Tuesday.

“It’s our strongest chance ever, probably will be my strongest chance ever.

“We wouldn’t want to forget Absurde either… he’s quarantined very well and I think he’s in great shape.”

Ryan Moore will ride Vauban, while Zac Purton has been booked for Absurde.

Last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Gold Trip and Without A Fight are involved in an interesting battle which has partly been fuelled by leading jockey Mark Zahra. He rode Gold Trip in last year’s Cup, but decided to stick to Without A Fight in Tuesday’s race after riding the son of Teofilo to victory in last month’s G1 Caulfield Cup (2400m). Gold Trip finished third.

Drawn in barrier two, Gold Trip, who will be ridden by James McDonald, is one of co-trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace’s five Cup runners.

“I was hoping he’d be out in the middle somewhere as he likes to get out a bit it,” Maher said of Gold Trip.

“Still, you never pass up a good gate and the horse is well… he’s better than last year but I think he needs to be.”

Japan’s Breakup continues to create interest and is expected to be improved from his Caulfield Cup eighth and much better suited to the 3200m.

Trainer Chris Waller has removed the blinkers from Soulcombe, to be ridden by Joao Moreira, in a bid to overcome the gelding’s slow starts to races which have been costly.

Danny O’Brien’s 2019 Melbourne Cup hero Vow And Declare joins Gold Trip as the only other Cup winner in the field.